Fighting Destiny (Central Coven) (32 page)

She was focused on maintaining her control over Finn and didn’t see the large root until it wrapped around her torso, trapping her arms to her chest.  Brought to life by Finn’s touch, the tree lifted Anita into the air, and began to squeeze. 

Anita squealed in delight.  “Wonderful!” she sang.  The tree unwound her high in the air.  She spun in the air, and landed gracefully like a ballerina.                Finn grinned displaying his bright white teeth, his thick hair tossed back during the fray showed the slight point to his ears. 

The satisfied growl of an American mountain lion sounded nearby, and I turned to see Dean lurking in his feline form watching from the trees.  The possible scenarios played in my head.  If Anita were really a hostile vampire, and I was Simone, Dean could use his physical strength against her while Finn manipulated the elements against me.  It could work.  Finally, we were coming together.

The ground seemed to catch on fire as the sun finally dipped beneath the foothills.  I’ve learned a lot about vampires in the last few weeks.  For example, it is true that vampires cannot come out into the daylight, but not because they will catch on fire like most popular literature contends.  It does cause a severe sunburn.  However, the reason they avoid the sun is it causes weakness and illness similar to porphyria.  A small exposure can leave them vulnerable for days vomiting blood. 

This is usually not fatal, but if they are attacked before they can recuperate they will not be able to defend themselves.  The sun also triggers an unbearable fatigue many of them find painful to ignore.

Grey had grown beyond the pull of the fatigue, and could stay awake longer and rise earlier than younger vampires, but even his age and strength could not protect him from the damaging rays of the sun.  Could the same be true for Alexander?  He is not as old as Grey, since Grey made him, but he isn’t young either. 

I don’t know how I can use that information, but I will drag Alexander out into the light if I have to.  One way or another this would end soon.

This close to winter, night came quickly.  The flame orange sky bled into purple and dark blue.  Diamond bright stars began to twinkle their ancient light at the edge of the dying day. 

I stood transfixed watching the end of one distinct part of my day turn into another.  Every day, since Grey and I became a couple, I wait for the moment he emerges for the night.  We can share our secrets with each other. I can be myself, but only in the dark.  That is the trade I make to have a real connection.

I took a deep breath and exhaled fogging up the night sky.  May emotions were swirling around in my chest, melancholy, anger, and irritation. I’m definitely taking up yoga when this is over. I kept replaying Grey’s words in my head, “We are just a different kind of meant-to-be. When you live forever, as we do, you have several destinies to live out.  Maybe you are so sure of us because we are meant to be
right now
.” When am I supposed to know when
right now
is over?  How much is it going to hurt when it is?  And how stupid am I that
this
is what I am worried about?

I tried to laugh at myself, but it came out shaky and bordering on tears.  My eyes welled up for an instant, and I forced the moisture back to where it came from.  A slight disturbance in the air near me alerted me to the very fast arrival of another supernatural being.

Just then all of my tension and worries melted away.  I became one of those girls I hate, and I didn’t care.  I love him, and when he is near, I feel…normal.  I don’t like it, but I’m not going to waste more time dissecting it either.  At least not until the sun comes up.

My hair whooshed around me, picked up by a sudden breeze, and I felt a slight pressure and chill on my shoulder.  I turned my head to see Grey’s hand resting on my shoulder.  In my distraction I hadn’t realized he was standing next to me.  He stood smirking at me with amusement. He was obviously pleased he could still sneak up on me.  “I hope you can catch Simone off-guard like you can with me,” I teased. 

He scowled, “Mmm, but she isn’t as much fun.  When I catch you I get to kiss you.  When I catch her… well, I do hate hurting girls. I would rather you catch her.  Therefore, I am going after Alexander.”  I nodded in agreement, “You do that.  Stake him good for me will you?”  Grey closed his eyes solemnly, “Yes.  I think I owe him that, and more.”

“Grey, I know you made Alexander, but what caused this hatred between you two?” I asked tentatively.  “Chloë, sometimes the past is best left behind us,” Grey answered cryptically.  “Don’t you think I might need this information?” I persisted.  Grey bent down and kissed me on top of my head, “Chloë, darling, I would tell you if I thought not telling you would put you in danger.”

“That is exactly what will happen if you don’t tell her the truth now,” the wise timber of my father’s voice announced from behind us.  “What do you know?” Grey asked.  My stomach began to do somersaults, as I was starting to feel I probably didn’t want to know about his past. 

“I can feel the unrest of the dead being pulled from their slumber.  Even those that have moved on to the afterlife are being ripped from their rewarded serenity.   Ghosts have been torn from the fabric of the past, and
all
of them are connected to you.  If you don’t confront your past voluntarily and now, you will have to do it unwillingly when it is most inconvenient.  And since you brought it up, it can put Chloë at risk.” My father lectured.

Grey looked past us both seeing a past he preferred never to remember.  His eyes glassed over, and his sharp features took on a sharper harder edge.  He nodded once, almost imperceptibly.  “I…I’ll give you a minute, come find me when you are ready,” I stuttered and turned to walk away.  His arm shot out in a blur, and grabbed my wrist.  “I need to tell you right now, or I never will,” Grey said, his voice toneless. 

“I have tried very hard, to atone for centuries of the most deplorable behavior imaginable.  Vampires joined the
Council
in the early 19
th
century, but before that we were ungoverned and out of control.  I was not an exception to this.  I’m not making excuses for myself, just letting you know the context of the time period when I became a vampire.”  Grey smiled sadly.  I squeezed his hand to reassure him.  He nodded, and continued his tale.

“I was born when Great Britain was still divided into different fiefdoms.  My father was a major lord loyal to the king.  I did not actually acquire the name Grey, until the late Middle Ages, when I regained my father’s title. 

I wish I had a gloriously dramatic tale about my transformation into what I am.  Many vampires from that period tell great stories about their makers stealing them from the moment of death on the battlefield.  That’s not how it was for me.  It could have been I suppose. I was a knight in my father’s fief, and I fought along side my father’s vassals.  However, in order to have been saved from battle I would have had to lose, and I never came close to losing. 

The last night of my life my father held a banquet in honor of the king. Several of the king’s other vassals were present, along with their knights, to pay homage.  As my father’s eldest son, and heir, I was present for all of the festivities.

In those days we looked for any reason to celebrate, and at the end of a long series of battles against an attempted usurper we found many reasons: peace, victory, the favor of the king.  I allowed myself to imbibe to excess, until, I was quite inebriated, and unaware of my surroundings. On any other night the worst my actions might have led to could have resulted in a duel over an insult, or stumbling into the room of a maiden and being forced into a hasty marriage.”

Grey paused staring off into space seeing something or someone from the past.  His features softened from a scowl to a sad grin.  I felt my heart break for the loss expressed there.  I was quite certain there
was
a maiden he very much wanted to marry. 

Grey blinked several times, and I watched his face as the images disappeared from his mind. He looked into my eyes, and I knew he was getting to the hard part.  The part where his shame and self-torment began. I rubbed my thumb across the top of his hand, and nodded for him to continue. “I’ll never know what might have been.  You see, one of the knights in attendance that evening was a vampire, and he turned me that night.  He told us his Lord had sent him to negotiate the peace treaty.  No one suspected what he was.  That was unusual, because people thought they saw magic and monsters everywhere then. 

He used the festivities to slip into our keep. This was important, because we formally invited strangers into our home during the celebration.  His desire was to become a lord, with his own keep, vassals, and subjects. The first step in his plan was to turn me. I was wealthy, strong, and the heir. I was also a celebrated fighter. He believed I could train the army of vampires he planned to make.

  He got what he wanted, at least initially, because once I was changed, I brought some of my human traits with me.  Primarily, I brought the ruthlessness of a feudal knight. Unfortunately, I lost my chivalry for centuries, not that chivalry was important to him.

I stayed long enough to allow my family to realize I was dead, and then I disappeared from my family mausoleum.  The lord that my sire claimed to serve was in reality a puppet for his estate.  We returned there, but not unnoticed.  My father declared war against the puppet lord, and burned the keep to the ground.  In the end my father ended up with more territory, and the fake lord was destroyed because of the monster he was harboring.  I escaped the fire, but my sire perished there.”

Grey smiled fiercely, and I could see that his sire had help dying in that fire.  I shuddered.  He gently squeezed my hand and pulled me into his arms.  He put his lips to my hair, and lightly rubbed my arms.  I knew by the way he held me he needed comfort from me, the strength to relive his past.  I tried to turn in his steely grasp, to face him, but he held tight, and I knew he had to finish his story.  He wanted me to know him completely.

“I traveled a lot.  All over Europe, Asia, and Africa.  I went anywhere I could travel by ship.  I killed my way through every continent known at the time.  I was born Geoffrey Grey, heir to the Duke of Suffolk, eventually I was known only by my family name, Grey. 

By the late 18
th
Century the world was changing.  Great Britain had lost its colonies, and the United States was formed.  Rumors of revolution in France were swirling around.  I was intoxicated by the philosophy, the creativity and productivity of this period of history.  The Renaissance was fascinating, but as the child of a ruler, this global political change intrigued me.

I re-entered English society as a long lost nephew to my aging uncle.  All true of course, except he was actually a nephew of sorts descended from my younger brother.  I dutifully attended my aging and ailing “uncle”, and with no children of his own, he named me to be his sole heir.  He was the Duke of Suffolk, and I regained my title.

I laid low for a while.  With a house full of servants I was able to develop a reputation of being sort of a rake.  Visiting clubs and going to balls until all hours of the night.  I only fed on prostitutes and others hanging on the lower rims of society.  By this time I had learned how not to kill.  My desire for carnage and revenge against what I had become was waning, and I was growing complacent.

It was around this time that I took it upon myself to investigate the state of some of my family’s investments in France. My family held power during the feudal period.  They continued to hold power after the Normans invaded Great Britain in 1010, and my family became deeply connected to the French aristocracy.

We sought alliances with members of the French royal family, and became connected closely to the semi-autonomous region of Navarre.  The royal family, of Navarre was closely related to the ruling family of France. After the last Valois king was assassinated, Henri Bourbon (King of Navarre) became Henri IV of France.  He was also one of my brother’s descendents.

Not only did I hold land in Great Britain, but I had some minor property and marriage prospects in France.  My title precluded my ability to hold a title in France, and a good thing too considering what they where about to do to their ruling class.

Soon after arriving in France I received an invitation to a ball being held at Versailles in honor of her majesty the Queen Marie Antoinette.  The invitation was for a star gazing ball.  It had become a popular past time among the favorite courtiers of the queen.  I immediately accepted the invitation, and I sent a footman over with my response.

I had been to France hundreds of times.  I always reveled in the decadence and utter hedonism of the French court, but this time the mood was somber.  All of the courtiers discussed the impending revolution.  It was a sort of last hoorah.  No one knew that within days the royal family would be arrested, and the monarchy would be overthrown.

That night I was introduced to a young nobleman named Alexandre de Valmont.  He was an heir to some minor title. I forget which one now.  He was young, vibrant, full of promise, and innocent.  So undeserving of the fate that awaited him as a member of the aristocracy.  I argued to myself that I was saving him by turning him into a vampire.  I realize now that I could have, should have, taken him out of France instead.